The Pushyamitras, a.d. 455.[Though the history of their last years is known only in fragments, chiefly from inscriptions and coins, little doubt remains regarding the power which first seriously weakened the early Guptas. The Bhitari stone pillar of Skandagupta[57] speaks of his restoring the fortunes of his family and conquering the Pushyamitras and also of his joining in close conflict with the Húṇas.[58] Unfortunately the Bhitari inscription is not dated. The Junágaḍh inscription, which bears three dates covering the period between a.d. 455 and 458,[59] mentions pride-broken enemies in the country of the Mlechchhas admitting Skandagupta’s victory. That the Mlechchhas of this passage refers to the Huns is made probable by the fact that it does not appear that the Pushyamitras were Mlechchhas while they and the Huns are the only enemies whom Skandagupta boasts either of defeating or of meeting in close conflict. It may therefore be assumed that the Huns became known to Skandagupta before a.d. 455. As according to the Chinese historians[60] the White Huns did not cross the Oxus into Baktria before a.d. 452, the founding of the Hun capital of Badeghis[61] may be fixed between a.d. 452 and 455. As the above quoted inscriptions indicate that the Huns were repulsed in their first attempt to take part in Indian politics the disturbances during the last years of Kumáragupta’s reign were probably due to some tribe other than the Huns. This tribe seems to have been the Pushyamitras whose head-quarters would seem to have been in Northern India. Some other enemy must have arisen in Málwa
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
The Pushyamitras, a.d. 455. since the terms of Parṇadatta’s appointment to Suráshṭra in a.d. 455–6 suggest that country had been lost to the Gupta empire and re-conquered by Skandagupta which would naturally be the case if a rival state had arisen in Málwa and been overthrown by that king. So far as is known the Huns made no successful attack on the Gupta empire during the lifetime of Skandagupta whose latest date is a.d. 468–9. It is not certain who succeeded Skandagupta. His brother Pura(or Sthira-)gupta ruled in or near Magadha. But it is not certain whether he was the successor or the rival of Skandagupta.[62] That Skandagupta’s inscriptions are found in the Patna district in the east[63] and in Káthiáváḍa in the west[64] suggests that during his life the empire was not divided nor does any one of his inscriptions hint at a partition. The probability is that Skandagupta was succeeded by his brother Puragupta, who again was followed by his son Narasiṃhagupta and his grandson Kumáragupta II.[65]
White Huns, a.d. 450–520.Among the northerners who with or shortly after the Pushyamitras shared in the overthrow of Gupta power two names, a father and a son, Toramáṇa and Mihirakula are prominent. It is not certain that these kings were Húṇas by race. Their tribe were almost certainly his rivals’ allies whom Skandagupta’s Bhitari and Junágaḍh inscriptions style the one Húṇas the other Mlechchhas.[66] On one of Toramáṇa’s coins Mr. Fleet reads[67] the date 52 which he interprets as a regnal date. This though not impossible is somewhat unlikely. The date of Mihirakula’s succession to his father is fixed somewhere about a.d. 515.[68] In the neighbourhood of Gwálior he reigned at least fifteen years.[69] The story of Mihirakula’s interview with Báláditya’s mother and his long subsequent history[70] indicate that when he came to the throne he was a young man probably not more than 25. If his father reigned fifty-two years he must have been at least 70 when he died and not less than 45 when Mihirakula was born. As Mihirakula is known to have had at least one younger brother,[71] it seems probable that Toramáṇa came to the throne a good deal later than a.d. 460 the date suggested by Mr. Fleet.[72] The date 52 on Toramáṇa’s coins must therefore refer to some event other than his own accession. The suggestion may be offered that that event was the establishment of the White Huns in Baktria and the founding of their capital Badeghis,[73] which, as fixed above between a.d. 452 and 455, gives the very suitable date of a.d. 504 to 507 for the 52 of Toramáṇa’s coin. If this suggestion is correct a further identification follows. The Chinese ambassador Sungyun (a.d. 520)[74]
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
White Huns, a.d. 450–520. describes an interview with the king of Gandhára whose family Sungyun notices was established in power by the Ye-tha, that is the Ephthalites or White Huns, two generations before his time.[75] Mihirakula is known to have ruled in Gandhára[76] and Sungyun’s description of the king’s pride and activity agrees well with other records of Mihirakula’s character. It seems therefore reasonable to suppose that the warlike sovereign who treated Sungyun and the name of his Imperial mistress with such scant courtesy was no other than the meteor Mihirakula. If Sungyun is correct in stating that Mihirakula was the third of his line the dynasty must have been established about a.d. 460. Beal is in doubt whether the name Lae-lih given by Sungyun[77] is the family name or the name of the founder. As a recently deciphered inscription shows Toramáṇa’s family name to have been Jaúvla[78] it seems to follow that Lae-lih, or whatever is the correct transliteration of the Chinese characters, is the name of the father of Toramáṇa. Sungyun’s reference to the establishment of this dynasty suggests they were not White Huns but leaders of some subject tribe.[79] That this tribe was settled in Baktria perhaps as far south as Kábul before the arrival of the White Huns seems probable. The Hindu or Persian influence notable in the tribal name Maitraka and in the personal name Mihirakula seems unsuited to Húṇas newly come from the northern frontiers of China and proud of their recent successes.[80] Chinese records show[81] that the tribe who preceded the White Huns in Baktria and north-east Persia, and who about a.d. 350–400 destroyed the power of Kitolo the last of the Kusháns, were the Yuan-Yuan or Jouen-Jouen whom Sir H. Howorth identifies with the Avars.[82] To this tribe it seems on the whole probable that
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
White Huns, a.d. 450–520. Lae-lih the father of Toramáṇa belonged.[83] At the same time, though perhaps not themselves White Huns, the details regarding Toramáṇa and Mihirakula so nearly cover the fifty years (a.d. 470–530) of Húṇa ascendancy in North India that, as was in keeping with their position in charge of his Indian outpost, the White Hun emperor Khushnáwaz, while himself engaged in Central Asia and in Persia (a.d. 460–500),[84] seems to have entrusted the conquest of India to Toramáṇa and his son Mihirakula. Of the progress of the mixed Yuan-Yuan and White Hun invaders in India few details are available. Their ascendancy in the north seems to have been too complete to allow of opposition, and Húṇas were probably closely associated with the Maitraka or Mehara conquest of Káthiáváḍa (a.d. 480–520). The southern fringe of the White Hun dominions, the present Saugor district of the Central Provinces, seems to have been the chief theatre of war, a debateable ground between the Guptas, Toramáṇa, and the Málwa chiefs. To the east of Saugor the Guptas succeeded in maintaining their power until at least a.d. 528–9.[85] To the west of Saugor the Guptas held Eraṇ in a.d. 484–5.[86] About twenty years later (a.d. 505)[87] Eraṇ was in the hands of Toramáṇa, and in a.d. 510–11 Bhánugupta[88] fought and apparently won a battle at Eraṇ.
Mihirakula, a.d. 512.Mihirakula’s accession to the throne may perhaps be fixed at a.d. 512. An inscription of Yaśodharman, the date of which cannot be many years on either side of a.d. 532–3, claims to have enforced the submission of the famous Mihirakula whose power had established itself on the tiaras of kings and who had hitherto bowed his neck to no one but Śiva.[89] In spite of this defeat Mihirakula held Gwálior and the inaccessible fortress of the Himálayas.[90] These dates give about a.d. 520 as the time of Mihirakula’s greatest power, a result which suggests that the Gollas, whom, about a.d. 520, the Greek merchant Cosmas Indikopleustes heard of in the ports of Western India as the supreme ruler of Northern India was Kulla or Mihirakula.[91]
Yaśodharman of Málwa, a.d. 533–4.Regarding the history of the third destroyers of Gupta power in Málwa, inscriptions show that in a.d. 437–8, under Kumáragupta, Bandhuvarman son of Vishṇuvarman ruled as a local king.[92]
Chapter VII.
The Guptas, a.d. 410–470.
Yaśodharman of Málwa, a.d. 533–4. Possibly Bandhuvarman afterwards threw off his allegiance to the Guptas and thereby caused the temporary loss of Suráshṭra towards the end of Kumáragupta’s reign. Nothing further is recorded of the rulers of Málwa until the reign of Yaśodharman in a.d. 533–4.[93] It has been supposed that one of Yaśodharman’s inscriptions mentioned a king Vishṇuvardhana but there can be little doubt that both names refer to the same person.[94] The name of Yaśodharman’s tribe is unknown and his crest the aulikara has not been satisfactorily explained.[95] Mandasor[96] in Western Málwa, where all his inscriptions have been found, must have been a centre of Yaśodharman’s power. Yaśodharman boasts[97] of conquering from the Brahmaputra to mount Mahendra and from the Himálayas to the Western Ocean. In the sixth century only one dynasty could claim such widespread power. That dynasty is the famous family of Ujjain to which belonged the well known Vikramáditya of the Nine Gems. It may be conjectured not only that Yaśodharman belonged to this family but that Yaśodharman was the great Vikramáditya himself.[98]
The difficult question remains by whom was the power of Mihirakula overthrown. Yaśodharman claims to have subdued Mihirakula, who, he distinctly says, had never before been defeated.[99] On the other hand, Hiuen Tsiang ascribes Mihirakula’s overthrow to a Báláditya of Magadha.[100] Coins prove that Báláditya[101] was one of the titles of Narasiṃhagupta grandson of Kumáragupta I. (a.d. 417–453) who probably ruled Magadha as his son’s seal was found in the Gházipur district.[102] If Hiuen Tsiang’s story is accepted a slight chronological difficulty arises in the way of this identification. It is clear that Mihirakula’s first defeat was at the hands of Yaśodharman about a.d. 530. His defeat and capture by Báláditya must have been later. As Skandagupta’s reign ended about a.d. 470 a blank of sixty years has to be filled by the two reigns of his brother and his nephew.[103] This, though not impossible, suggests caution in identifying Báláditya. According to Hiuen Tsiang Báláditya was a feudatory of Mihirakula who rebelled against him when he began to persecute the Buddhists. Hiuen Tsiang notices that, at the intercession of his own mother, Báláditya spared Mihirakula’s life and allowed him to retire to Kashmir. He further notices that Mihirakula and his brother were rivals and his statement suggests that from Kashmir Mihirakula defeated his brother and recovered Gandhára. The ascendancy of the White Huns cannot have lasted long after Mihirakula. About a.d. 560 the power of the White Huns was crushed between the combined attacks of the Persians and Turks.[104]—(A.M.T.J.)]
[1] Váyu Puráṇa, Wilson’s Works, IX. 219n. [↑]
[2] Vishṇu Puráṇa, III. Chapter 10 Verse 9: Burnell’s Manu, 20. Mr. Fleet (Corp. Ins. Ind. III. Ins. 11 note 1) quotes an instance of a Bráhman named Brahmagupta. [↑]
[3] Fleet’s Corp. Ins. Ind. III. Ins. 53 line 7. [↑]
[4] Compare Skandagupta’s Junágaḍh Inscription line 15, Ind. Ant. XIV.; Cunningham’s Arch. Sur. X. 113; Fleet’s Corp. Ins. Ind. III. Ins. 59. [↑]